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It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.
Thucydides
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Thucydides
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More quotes by Thucydides
Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.
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... Athenians are addicted to innovation. They are daring beyond their judgment they toil on with little opportunity for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting, they were born into the world to take no rest themselves, and to give none to others.
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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
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Hatred also is short lived but that which makes the splendor of the present and the glory of the future remains forever unforgotten here we bless your simplicity but do not envy your folly.
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War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.
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when night came on, the Macedonians and the barbarian crowd suddenly took fright in one of those mysterious panics to which great armies are liable
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The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.
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I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time
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For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.
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Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
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And it is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.
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He passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach himself with complaisance toward his enemies.
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If it had not been for the pernicious power of envy, men would not so have exalted vengeance above innocence and profit above justice... in these acts of revenge on others, men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress.
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...knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart, not idly to stand aside from the enemy's onset.
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Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
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Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage.
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The secret of freedom, courage.
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It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
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Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris
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Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.
Thucydides
